A number of years ago, a lecturer at uni who was really helpful and passionate, imparted some advice to our group that has stayed with me. He told us that as we went through life, if we wanted to be successful and achieve our goals, we would need to become really good at sorting through information.

He told us there are four main types:

• First there’s the useless (to be discarded as fast as possible).

• Second is what he called the mildly interesting (to be briefly considered and then almost certainly be discarded).

• Thirdly comes the interesting (that should be thoroughly considered and then acted upon if required).

• Finally there was what he called ‘life changing’ information.

He told us that if we hoped to be successful (in any area of life) it was essential that we be able to quickly recognise life changing information and be ready and willing to act on it immediately.

The example he gave us was a conference that he had recently attended on health and wellbeing – the keynote speaker presented research (which was new at the time) that showed if you put a tablespoon of fibre on your cereal every day, you decrease the risk of bowel cancer by 25%.

That information was for him life changing and from that day on, he put fibre on his cereal – he turned 80 a few months ago and I dare say he still does.

It is good information so you might be wondering, did I act on this and put fibre on my cereal? Yes, I certainly did for quite a long while, (several years) then I sort of stopped having cereal & well, you know how it is…

The problem is that as humans we tend to avoid change, in fact we will go to extraordinary lengths to ignore things and justify things, if it means that we don’t have to change something (especially if it’s personal). We tend to let things drift along – sometimes even when we might come across potentially life changing information.

Consider the Bible – have you read it at all? It contains an incredible offer of hope for the future from God, for anyone who is interested and prepared to try their best to submit themselves to God.

In Hebrews we read: “These two things cannot change: God cannot lie when he makes a promise, and he cannot lie when he makes an oath. These things encourage us who came to God for safety. They give us strength to hold on to the hope we have been given. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and strong...” (Hebrews 6:18-19, NCV)

Could this be life changing information? You’ll never know if you don’t look for yourself!